Valkyrien is Nordic noir at its most bonkers – review

We think of Scandinavia as a placid region of consensual tax-enabled hygge. But the Nordic noir dramas they export paint a picture of government conspiracy, police psychosis and criminal megalomania. If The Killing and The Bridge are to be credited, something is rotten in the state of Denmark, not to mention Sweden.

Valkyrien (Sunday, Channel 4) is from Norway. While it’s not written by him, anyone who devours the fiction of Jo Nesbo will recognise this Norwegian strain of crazy plotting, starting with the comical opening to the first episode.

Credit:
Channel 4

A gang of burglars were emptying a bank when, with the police on their way, one of their number accidentally locked his pals inside. He took a bullet in his kidney by way of punishment and somehow fetched up being operated on in the illicit underground lab of an off-grid surgeon.

The doctor is called Ravn (Sven Nordin). He hung up his white coat after his wife Wilma (Pia Halvorsen) was denied the experimental treatment they had both been developing but had yet to test on humans. By the end of the episode we learnt why Ravn was happy to be abducted from Wilma’s funeral, and why there was no body in her coffin.

Sven Nordin as Ravn (left)Credit:
Channel 4

In short, bonkers. To get the full benefit of Valkyrien it’s probably safest to switch your incredulity reflex off at the mains and consent to be pelted by some of Nordic noir’s more high-falutin’ absurdities. The conduit for most of them is Leif (Pål Sverre Hagen), a spectral fixer and one of those paranoid Scandis who blogs that the apocalypse is just round the next bend (though who, having read the headlines, can blame him?).

There are eight episodes to get through. Aficionados will know how these things play out: hyperactively, with a lot of straight faces and blind alleys. The show’s creator is Erik Richter Strand.

It’s reported that a British version is in the pipeline with Mark Strong, and while I would never normally recommend avoiding the subtitled original, it might be worth hanging on to see if it seems any more sane and rational in English.